Chandigarh mayoral polls: Black Day for country's democracy, says Punjab CM

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday alleged cheating in the Chandigarh mayoral polls and said the day will be remembered as Black Day for countrys democracyHis reaction came after the BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls winning all the three posts including of mayor as it defeated the CongressAAP allianceMann said now his worry is that those who did the cheating can go to any extent in the parliamentary electionsThis day will be remembered as Black Day for our countrys democracy Mann told a news conferenceIn the mayoral polls BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar defeated the AAPs Kuldeep Kumar for the mayors post polling 16 votes against the 12 won by his rival Eight votes were declared invalidIn Chandigarh councillors of the INDIA bloc parties AAP and Congress protested as soon as the results were announcedThe Punjab CM accused presiding officer Anil Masih of making some marks on the ballots during the counting rendering them invalid and stated that the invalid ballots tilted the balance in the BJP candidates favourThis has come when we celebrated the Republic Day a few days ago Now in the polls the Constitution has been trampled I will say that the mayoral elections were looted by the BJPEarlier such examples have been there and they did so in Madhya Pradesh Karnataka Goa and Maharashtrathey do this in northeastern states Mann saidHe said before the start of the polls on Tuesday a demonstration was given by the officials for the councillorsIt was surprising that first the presiding officer came late by nearly 40 minutes when polls were scheduled to take place Later when ballots were taken out for mayor post he first counted the ballots In another round he is seen signing those ballots said Mann alleging there was tampering with the ballot papers in the electionsHe claimed this was visible in the video as the whole thing was being videographedMann also said there were no agents of the AAP and Congress who should have been allowed to be thereAnil Masih is an officebearer of BJPs minority wing who was made presiding officer he saidI demand that deshdroh treason case should be registered against the presiding officer He has murdered democracy alleged MannThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever